A new toy from toy innovation company Wow! Stuff, that listens to music and flashes perfectly to every beat, has been cited as a key toy trend line for 2021 – and it was created by tw0 ladies who have been best friends since childhood.
The Toy Association of America released its annual Toy Trends forecast on February 16th, usually released each year at the annual Toy Fair in New York where it’s normally “standing room only,” said President and CEO, Steve Passierb — such is the importance that retailers and manufacturers put on the analysis by the Toy Association of America.
The report covers the key trends forecasted to be “what’s new and what’s going to be hot” in the year ahead. The new Chibies from Wow! Stuff have been selected in the 2021 Toy Trends Mixing in Music section where The Toy Association Toy Trend Specialist and researcher Kristin Morency Goldman announced the category as “one of the biggest trends we’ve seen this year.”
Dr. Graeme Taylor, co-founder and Director of Innovation at Wow! Stuff commented, “We are seeing a three-road intersection where fashion meets music meets toys. So combining all three and innovating with sound sensors has really created something special. Chibies also have an interesting back story. Usually our PD team, with scientists at the core, are heavily involved in the original ideation. This time however we moved aside to allow two young members of the team, Josie and Victoria who have been best friends since they were 5, to expand on their idea.”
Josie and Victoria jointly commented, “It feels surreal to be working as best friends and seeing our idea, our handmade prototypes come to life and now be on sale at Target in America. As kids we always built things together and were doing lip sync video’s when we were 8 or 9, long before TikTok made it famous! I guess spotting trends is our passion and to be developing toys for a living isn’t like working!”